“My little piece of the planet”: the multiplicity of well-being benefits from allotment gardening

Dobson, Miriam C.; Reynolds, Christian; Warren, Philip H.; Edmondson, Jill L.

doi:10.1108/bfj-07-2020-0593

Cited by 25 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…As discussed, many people may have avoided parks due to overcrowding and the associated risks of contracting SARS-CoV-2. However, allotments have provided an important community space during COVID-19 [ 65 ] and may provide a multiplicity of wellbeing benefits [ 66 ]. Further research focusing on the typology and quality of green spaces and their relationships with mental wellbeing is warranted.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature’s Role in Supporting Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Geospatial and Socioecological Study

Robinson

Brindley

Cameron

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented changes to human lifestyles across the world. The virus and associated social restriction measures have been linked to an increase in mental health conditions. A considerable body of evidence shows that spending time in and engaging with nature can improve human health and wellbeing. Our study explores nature’s role in supporting health during the COVID-19 pandemic. We created web-based questionnaires with validated health instruments and conducted spatial analyses in a geographic information system (GIS). We collected data (n = 1184) on people’s patterns of nature exposure, associated health and wellbeing responses, and potential socioecological drivers such as relative deprivation, access to greenspaces, and land-cover greenness. The majority of responses came from England, UK (n = 993). We applied a range of statistical analyses including bootstrap-resampled correlations and binomial regression models, adjusting for several potential confounding factors. We found that respondents significantly changed their patterns of visiting nature as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. People spent more time in nature and visited nature more often during the pandemic. People generally visited nature for a health and wellbeing benefit and felt that nature helped them cope during the pandemic. Greater land-cover greenness within a 250 m radius around a respondent’s postcode was important in predicting higher levels of mental wellbeing. There were significantly more food-growing allotments within 100 and 250 m around respondents with high mental wellbeing scores. The need for a mutually-advantageous relationship between humans and the wider biotic community has never been more important. We must conserve, restore and design nature-centric environments to maintain resilient societies and promote planetary health.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature’s Role in Supporting Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Geospatial and Socioecological Study

Robinson

Brindley

Cameron

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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“…A suite of data available to practitioners and policy makers that takes into account the resource needs of different forms of UH, including commercial ventures that may need more costly environmental inputs, would be an invaluable tool to help site the most appropriate UH type in each available food growing space within a city. Previous research has demonstrated that allotment gardeners often share surplus produce with friends and family [65]; future research analysing the end location of harvests could bring an assessment of food miles into the picture of resource use sustainability.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Direct Resource Requirements of Urban Horticulture in the United Kingdom: A Citizen Science Approach

2021

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Interest in urban food production is growing; recent research has highlighted its potential to increase food security and reduce the environmental impact of food production. However, resource demands of urban horticulture are poorly understood. Here, we use allotment gardens in the United Kingdom to investigate resource demands of urban horticultural production across the country. We conducted a nationwide citizen science project using year-long allotment ‘diaries’ with allotment gardeners (n = 163). We analysed a variety of resources: transportation; time; water use; inputs of compost, manure and topsoil; and inputs of fertilisers, pest control and weed control. We found that, overall, an allotment demands 87 annual visits, travelling 139 km to and from the plot; 7 fertiliser additions; 4 pest control additions; and 2 weed control additions. On average, each kilogram of food produced used 0.4 hours’ labour, 16.9 L of water, 0.2 L of topsoil, 2.2 L of manure, and 1.9 L of compost. As interest in urban horticultural production grows, and policy makers build urban horticultural spaces into future sustainable cities, it is of key importance that this is carried out in a way that minimises resource requirements, and we demonstrate here that avenues exist for the diversion of municipal compostable waste and household-level city food waste for this purpose.

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“…Such projects have the potential to bring improvements in food security and food sovereignty to urban areas, whilst also increasing the engagement of citizens, local government and researchers in urban growing. Such collaborative projects highlight that with the right support, positive health community and environmental benefits can accrue (Beilin and Hunter, 2011;Dobson et al, 2020), as reported in the wider "urban food growing" literature (reviewed in Edmondson et al (2020)).…”

Section: Example 2 Urban Growingmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Importance of Citizen Scientists in the Move Towards Sustainable Diets and a Sustainable Food System

Oakden

Bridge

Armstrong

et al. 2021

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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To enhance sustainability, the food system requires significant shifts in the production, processing and supply of food. Ideally, a sustainable food system should operate, not only to protect the biosphere, but also to provide nutritious, high-quality food, and to support social values, an equitable economy, and human and animal health. It should also be governed responsibly within a supportive policy environment. Implementing these shifts is a task of immense scale; but citizen participation/engagement has the potential to help make sustainability a reality through distributed learning, dynamic sensing, and knowledge generation. Technological advancements in sensing and data processing have enabled new forms of citizen participation in research. When food system research is embedded within society it can help us to understand which changes towards sustainability work and which do not. Indeed, citizen engagement in food systems research has the potential to help bring citizens on side, supporting the growth of a food culture of resilience and of sustainable practises (including dietary change). This commentary provides examples of how existing research and alternative food production systems and agroecological practises may provide possible frameworks for citizen participation in food system studies. We highlight potential future food and citizen science approaches. Widening citizen participation and encouraging the involvement of other food system actors, including those in local, national and international governance, is essential to capture the full potential of citizen science in enabling transition to a sustainable food system. For the research community citizen science offers engagement and empowerment of wider communities with science; collecting and analysing data; and creating viable solutions to food system and diet issues.

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“My little piece of the planet”: the multiplicity of well-being benefits from allotment gardening

Cited by 25 publications

References 28 publications

Nature’s Role in Supporting Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Geospatial and Socioecological Study

Nature’s Role in Supporting Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Geospatial and Socioecological Study

Assessing the Direct Resource Requirements of Urban Horticulture in the United Kingdom: A Citizen Science Approach

The Importance of Citizen Scientists in the Move Towards Sustainable Diets and a Sustainable Food System

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